Congress chief Kharge lauds youth outfits for stir against CEC Gyanesh Kumar, CJP doesn't find a mention

The Congress president, Mallikarjun Kharge, on Monday expressed support for civil society and youth organisations who are on the streets against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, but skipped any mention of the Cockroach Janta Party, which has played a leading role in the latest round of protests.

In a post on X, Kharge listed three “non-negotiable" demands of the Congress, including the resignation of Kumar from the CEC post.

“The Congress Party's 3 demands are non-negotiable. First, the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar. Second, the cancellation of SIR. Third, conducting elections on Ballot Paper. Across the country, Congress workers and INDIA alliance partners are on the streets over these three issues," Kharge wrote.

"Whoever Civil Society Members and Youth Organisations are struggling on these issues in various places across the country, we stand with them,” he added

The tweet underscored the party’s unease with the CJP—a youth-led outfit that has captured the imagination of millions of young Indians.

Some INDIA bloc allies, including the Trinamool (Mamata), the CPI (M), and the Shiv Sena (UBT), have expressed their support for the CJP. The Congress, however, has refused to give political legitimacy to the CJP.

The CJP has also announced another round of sit-in demonstrations in Delhi from October 10.

Congress's unease with the CJP

During the protests at Jantar Mantar against then-education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the Congress credited the students with forcing Pradhan to resign, but not the CJP, which spearheaded the protest.

During the recent protests, CJP, Left, and AAP workers took an active role, but the Congress’s student body, NSUI, was missing in action.

A senior party leader said that “the NSUI had taken up the issue of Gyanesh Kumar in their own way. But the organisation wanted to maintain its distance from CJP and AAP-led protests.”

Within the Congress, there is a big dilemma as CJP is widely seen as the key force and mobiliser of students, whereas the NSUI, which lost badly in the recent Delhi University Students Union elections, has failed to attract the eyeballs.

“The isolation from the CJP-led protests can hurt the frontal organisations of the party. The Congress can either come up with its own protest plan, which can attract thousands of students, or it must acknowledge the CJP’s role,” said another party leader.

To be sure, the Indian Youth Congress, the party’s youth arm, took out protests across the cities. Many of the activists were detained or arrested by the cops.

Congress’s secretary Pranav Jha told HT, “When we started demanding scrutiny, the Election Commission gave vague explanations. We believe SIR was a knee-jerk response to evade public scrutiny of electoral rolls. What began as a campaign by Rahul Gandhi, the Congress Party and our allies has now become a people’s movement. Today, people are demanding the CEC’s resignation because they want accountability and those responsible to be investigated and prosecuted."

"So, individuals, organisations or allies, everyone is united in this cause. Some may have chosen different days, places or platforms for protest, but everyone is united in this cause, is what is meant by this,” Jha added.

What CJP leaders have said

On Saturday, Ashutosh Ranka, co-convenor of CJP, took an indirect dig at the Congress. He tweeted, “An entire 'self-declared liberal' ecosystem has been activated to denounce @abhijeet_dipke and the fact that he has been able to capture the imagination of millions of Indians after a LONG LONG time. The hilarious part is that this ecosystem exists only on Twitter, but somehow thinks they are the sole protectors of democracy.”

Saurav Das, another co-convenor of CJP replied “It’s a very big problem. A certain section—not just the BJP—another party thinks “saving India, saving constitution” is only their job. They are self-declared liberals and self-declared thekedars of the constitution.”